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Love is to want the highest and best for someone – why mom didn't give you all you wanted!

Jesus spoke on love 13 times some of these occurrences are parallel scriptures such as someone asking Him what the greatest commandment of all. He preached some 190 times on hell, repentance and judgement. The professing Christians on campus are always nagging me to preach love. One day I assembled this list of Christ's speaking on love for the students of ASU, but they all scattered when I began to read it. This patently shows that the students don't care about God's love; they merely want to hear a message of "anything goes" a message of "false grace"; a message that says "God will love you even if you get drunk, commit fornication, masturbate, lie, cheat or steal..." This is quite obvious by the hecklers who ask a question and then run when you begin to give a cogent educated answer. Read about the true biblical grace. Well that's O.K. because God commands us to preach; He doesn't command them to listen. Often the prophets were sent to preach to people that they knew would ignore them and God said "Go any ways". God's word will not return void it will either save the hearers or condemn them at their final judgment!

I tell them that I follow the preaching of Jesus and the apostles in that I preach repentance from sins and faith in God -for this is how Jesus and His Apostles expressed their love for mankind. Paul said "knowing the terror of the Lord we persuade men". Again Jesus spoke on love 13 times, He preached some 190 times on hell, repentance and judgement. Repentance is defined as "turning from sin" contrition is feeling sorry for your sins and not to be confused with repentance. Everyone feels sorry for their sins; even Bill Clinton felt sorry for his adulterous relationship - after he got caught; but did he repent? You will notice that none of these scriptures speaks about unconditional love.

Take note that only once is there any hint of unconditional love - John 3:16, and this is a love or benevolence for mankind and is a general love which doesn't include each individual person but a benevolence for the human race. Does anyone honestly think that God loved Hitler as he was gassing the Jews or loves him now as he burns in hell? The other scriptures that Jesus speaks of God's love toward man is conditional and based upon man loving Jesus. Jesus said if you love Me you will keep My commandments, and then the Father will love you. So God's love is conditional upon obedience to Christ.

1. In the book of Acts (Evangelist's field manual) the word love isn't mentioned once, but rather the apostles preached "Repent and believe..."

2. Mt 5:44/Lk 6:27 But I say unto you, loveyour enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despise you, and persecute you;

3. Mt 10:37 He that lovesfather or mother more than me is not worthy of Me: and he that loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me.

7. Jn 14:21 He that hath My commandments, and keeps them, he it is that loves Me: and he that loves Me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.

8. Jn 14:24 He that loves me not keeps not my sayings: and the word which ye hear is not Mine, but the Father's which sent Me.

9. Jn 16:27 For the Father Himself loves you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.

10. Jn 15:9-10 As the Father hath loved Me, so have I loved you: continue ye in My love. If ye keep My commandments, ye shall abide in My love; even as I have kept My Father's commandments, and abide in His love.

11. Jn 13:34/15:12/17 A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another. – speaking to the saved.

12. Jn 15:13 Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

13. Jn 3:16 For God so loved the world, that he gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life…18:He that believes on Him is not condemned: but he that doesn't believe is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The term only begotten in the Greek means: of the same stock or substance - another claim for the deity of Christ.

Based on Jesus' definition of love - Do you love Him or offer Him lip service?

22 comments:

What you really mean is Jesus is crazy. In Him we live and move and have our being; you can't escape the arm of God and it drives you nuts. God has revealed Himself through creation and continually through your conscience. That is why I say there are no real atheists. I pray that you repent and come to Christ before your number is called because hell is a very real and nasty place where even the devil fears. In fact the bible says that the demons know the truth of God and shutter (they know their doom) but you have the free will and chance to change your eternal destiny.

I would not choose to call you crazy, however I greatly disagree with your assessment of scripture. That is one of the problems with the Christian faith is that there seem to be too many interpretations. Then there are too many more people that do not read and study for themselves and simply believe what someone has told them. So, I can see your argument and agree that it is solid, but I also believe it is incorrect. I came across this site looking into something about "original sin" and I agree with your assessments on that topic, but not on unconditional love. Sorry.

Thank you the thread throughout the bible is "God hates all workers of iniquity" and "God is angry with the sinner everyday" Now to say we are to hate the sin and love the sinner is foolish because sin has no existence apart from the sinner since sin is a reflection of the sinners heart. So you have to either love both or hate both. But God in His grace thought enough of us to give us a provision and way to be free from a life of sin and if we don't take it then the bible tells us that a man can stiffen his neck beyond remedy (meaning God will give up on him). Sort of like the evil men of history, they obviously crossed the point of no return and went beyond redemption into hell. Yes God loves "mankind" but not necessarily every man. Regarding too many interpretations: well you see this in science, law, philosophy, other religions, so varying opinions on the meaning of the scriptures are by no means limited to Christians.

Hmmm... My long response I posted yesterday no longer appears here. I have no desire to try and type it all out again. Instead I will simply say that I agree that interpretation are not limited to Christianity, and you have a valid point there. However, I will continue to disagree with your other points. I explained in detail why yesterday, but since that post is now gone I will leave that I do not agree and that is all.

Amended comment: Thou dost hate all who do iniquity. This does not say that God hates the sin and loves the sinner; I suggest everyone read the scriptures and what the great church fathers taught about how God hates the sinner: http://www.preacharizona.com/2009/02/hate-sin-and-love-sinner.html

I removed your comments because I didn't care to get into a debate and would not leave "half of a debate" posted.

Interesting because I did not see it as a debate. In fact I said I was not trying to sway any opinion but simply offering my own. However, it is your site so you can allow what you want and throw out what you don't want. Anyway, I formulate my thoughts based off scripture, and they just happen to disagree with yours. Again, thank you for the site as it has much to offer even if I see "some" of it differently.

That seems to be a strange question, especially in regard to Islam. If I were Muslim I think my views would have been even more different. And I must admit that I do not know much about the Jehova Witnesses. So to answer your question I am neither. I am a student of systematic theology. I do not prescribe to a specific denomination 's doctrine. I currently attend a Wesleyan church but I am not a member nor do I agree with all of their stances. However, I do not feel it is necessary for me to agree with it all either. It is not my job nor in my authority to judge. Instead I enjoy communicating with and learning from people with various backgrounds and beliefs. But I leave my final stances to be based on how I interpret scripture. Yet, I am not so bold to claim I have it all figured out and I recognize some topics are challenging, so I am willing to get a basic thought flow from others and then turn to scripture to see how I can or cannot integrate those ideas. For example the topic of original sin is a widely held doctrine in most mainstream churches, but it is not one I agree with personally. Long winded answer to your question but I hope my point was clearly made.

Well you most certainly judge people and their views; Jesus commands us to judge but to do it with good intentions. We have to judge people daily and their views so don't go over board with the "judge not" stuff or you might find yourself in the camp with most of the spineless Evangelical Christians of today.

Well the comments I made in response to your comments about going overboard and "judge not" are no longer visible. They have seemed to have disappeared like my other comments that you admitted to removing, so I made the assumption you removed them as well.

Either way, I think I no longer have anything else to say in regard to this thread.

Sorry I saw your comment in my email yesterday but wasn't on this site. Maybe I some how declined it without knowing I did. Anyways if you wish to repost it please do. My only comment was that we are to judge people and their behavior and the reason the church and our country is such a mess today is people are afraid to call evil out.

I do not recall all that I originally said. I simpy was explaining that I was not spineless and my viewpoint in regards to judging. Yes, I have to judge in comparison with my own beliefs and how I view another's thoughts and ideas, but I have no authority to condemn them as right or wrong. I can appreciate your thoughts on the fear of calling out evil, but I warn that doing so can lead to extremes and must also be done in certain manner. Pointing out evil can be done without resulting in "evil" and hateful ways that only serve to tear people apart even further. Human nature is to defend one's self, and if someone is felt they are being attacked they will simply retaliate. There must be more open dialog that leads to better understanding so that "evil" ways can be shown from a less combative way. At least that's my opinion and the way I choose to approach things, and the way I believe the Lord desires us to do.

37 Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ 38 This is the first and greatest commandment. 39 And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ 40 All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

Thanks for your interest in my blog. I did address this dialogue in the article item 5, Luke 10:27/Mark12:30 these are parallel scriptures with Matt 22:36-40 and give the same recount with the "Lawyer" or "Rich Young Ruler" but I will add your reference to item 5 as well.

If we are to love our neighbor as we love ourselves (Matthew 22:39), and everything in the Bible is God's love letter to us and supposed to bring us closer to Him, wouldn't he love his neighbors as well?

Dear Unknown I would say that the epistles are "God's love letters" to the church, and the gospels are an historical account of the life of Jesus. The books of the old testament are an account of man from Adam through the prophets. God's love is that He has taken time to warn us of sinful behavior and its consequences, he gave us His Law and the Prophets to both show us His will and point us to Jesus. To say that God's entire bible or revealed revelation is "His love letter" is quite monolithic. Remember the bible says "Open rebuke is better than secret love". So God loved the world so that He gave us the prophets of whom a rebellious people killed because they didn't want to live holy, and He sent His Son to show us the way of life and fulfill what was written of Him in the old testament as well as to fulfill the ceremonies and dietary laws which all pointed to Him. God told us to love our neighbor, "He" doesn't have any neighbors.

John's gospel directly speaks to the point that if we know love we know God and if we have experienced love we have experienced God, how then shall that love be conditional? do we only know love if we have checked a list like the pharisees? or do you believe that love is limited? in which God is then limited? i pray that you experience love in its unlimited capacity and that the fruits of the spirit come into your life to profoundly move your heart to hear the call of Gods commandments in your life. May you be released by the Crucifixion's power to be healed of your judgement and rest in the face of Jesus Christ having saved you from that judgement and may you not feel the need to judge another with threats of hell but invite all people with open and knowledgeable understanding of the restorative justice of the kingdom of God.

Thank you, in our humanity we all want certainty. Too often it is because of our laziness and we want to have a theology that says we can live in our pet sins and still go to heaven. Would you marry your wife if she said she wants to cheat on you occasionally but expects you to love her from beginning to end? Why do you charge God with such foolishness? If you can't love God enough to restrain from your sins...as Jesus said "The one who puts his hand to the plow and then looks back is not worthy of my kingdom". Go live in a Moslem country and see how long your faith holds out! The one who says "I know Him" and continues to sin is a liar. Wake up, and stop your sinning - Paul